ses an ideology whose values are polar opposites, ôNeither of the two campsàpresents an absolute position. Damn backers often love to go trout fishing in a free-flowing stream, and most dam fighters surely enjoy the benefits of a reliable municipal water supply, an irrigated agricultural economy, and inexpensive hydroelectric power production.ö What this clearly demonstrates is that those who fight for their preferences in water policy always influence waterways, whether they are opposed to dams or in favor of them.
In fact, human development has long been associated with interactions with nature, especially when coastal societies develop. In a way, waterways become an organic machine that is shaped by the people living along them as much as they shape the activities, economies, and lifestyles of those living along them. While water policy in California did not traditionally lead to public disputes that resulted in significant changes to water policy legislation in California, Dunning (p. 14) maintains there are a number of significant reasons why those public debates in the past two decades have significantly shaped water policy in the state, ôThe rise of irrigated agriculture, the growth of coastal citiesàand the rapid increase in water-related outdoor recreation since World War II.ö
The water policy debate between the dam backers and the dam fighters will likely continue in the state of California. This is because though both groups agree that some kind of balance must be achieved in the use of limited water resources in the state, as Dunning (p. 26) maintains, both groups have ôradically different notions of what an appropriate balance entails.ö Nevertheless, the factionalism fostered by James Madison during the founding of the U.S. promoted the idea that competing interests would ensure justice and fairness in a democracy as they viewed for use of resources. DunningÆs essay shows that dam fighters have been ab...